Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau(centre) flanked by three terrorists on either side

PHOTO CREDIT: AFP

VANGUARD
August 25, 2013
By Kingsley Omonobi
Abuja

The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar
Shekau, may have died a traumatic
death.That was the picture security
forces painted at the weekend.

From the vast forests of Sambisa, Borno State, where he was reportedly shot and sustained injuries in June during a raid on his hideout by military forces, he was
said to have been taken to Mali for
treatment by the Boko Haram top
hierarchy. In Mali, Sunday Vanguard learnt that Shekau’s situation soon grew worse.

After consultations, the leadership of the
Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-
Jihad, which in Arabic means, “People
Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad”, decided
to move their boss to Cameroun. “It was in Cameroun that the situation got out of hand. “There, all known medical support that could be provided within acceptable underground limits was mustered. But that was where he gave up the ghost”, one of the security sources said.

The source added that a recent video
recording allegedly released by the sect
showing Shekau calling the bluff of the
US, Britain and France and claiming that nobody could stop the group was a smokescreen to paint the picture that he was still alive and in control.

Indeed, the spectre of hopelessness was initially discarded as news which first filtered out of the sect’s camp suggested that Shekau could actually survive. To buttress that air of invincibility, the
publicized recording had to be released to members of the public

Sunday Vanguard was told that “if the sect members had had access to modern
medical facilities, Shekau may have
survived. But the leadership of Boko
Haram was also sure that the military
was all out to get Shekau and, therefore, could not risk even a disguised Shekau
being taken to a hospital”, a source
disclosed. “Infact as I am talking to you now, we have it on good authority that a close confidant of his (Shekau) who was
mandated to follow him and ensure he
received proper treatment has been
killed by members of the group for allowing the information of his death to get out”, the source said.

Aside killing the confidant (aide),Sunday
Vanguard was made to understand that
there was an intelligence report
indicating that his followers hurriedly
buried his remains, in an attempt to hide the death and paint a picture of invincibility around him so that they
would continue to use it to hoodwink
sect members.

Sources said the death of Shekau and the likely response of Boko Haram who may be mobilizing to hit back (revenge)
through bombings, kidnapping and killing of innocent citizens played a role in the decision of the Federal Government to approve the establishment of a new army division for the North-East, 7 Division, with headquarters in Maiduguri.

🙂 What you have there is the ‘open sesame’…forget those purported borders. What with desolate and desertified frontiers across huge territories!

If you removed its massive territorial waters, since we are talking terrestrial frontiers here, Nigeria’s land area would be twice that of France, Cameroon’s equal to France’s while totally landlocked Niger and Mali would be three times the size of France.

Now think about the challenges entailed in securing those frontiers IF Rivers State of Nigeria operate a budget which is bigger than the combined total for Mali and Niger. HOW do you expect both sister republics to fund border security over an area the size of Western Europe on such small funds, even when a comparatively well leveraged Nigeria and Algeria face the same challenge as insurgents flit back and forth across frontiers?

🙂 What you have is ‘open sesame’, no borders. What with desolate and desertified frontiers across huge territories. If you removed its huge territorial waters, since we are talking terrestrial frontiers here, Nigeria would be nearly twice the size of France, Cameroon nearly equal to France in size while landlocked Niger and Mali would each occupy more than two-and-a-half times the land area of France.

If Rivers State of Nigeria operate a budget which is bigger than the combined total for Mali and Niger, HOW do you expect both sister republics to effectively fund border security operations over an area the size of Western Europe on such lean funds? Think about the need for personnel, scanners, surveillance aircraft, 4WD patrol vehicles, motorbikes and task-specific equipment needed to enforce border security over such an enormous span of territory.

Methinks a collaborative effort is the way to go. All the frontiers in the massive and geographically contiguous neighbourhood are extremely porous – Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Sudan, are decidedly very porous and characterised by mostly desolate and desertified landscapes.

How else do you think Libyan arms were so easily able to trickle into the hands of extremists in Mali and Nigeria? How else could fleeing Malian extremists have so easily fled as far away as Sudan undected, crossing all of Chad and Niger on their way or slipped through Niger and into southern Libya?

Cannot say for certain if Shekau is dead but it is all too apparent, as was extensively debated on this blog, that the BH Face of August was an impostor. It suggests that the authoritarian Shekau is either gravely injured or dead.

SINE “COMMANDER VIDEO” who never saw a you tube video of himself that he did not like.There are some certain things that are very apparent and I would hope oga peccavi with his well documented and very balanced analyasis will come through soon
1) There is a debilitating power struggle going on with the remnants of the soon -to be – captured -or killed hierarchy of boko haram.
2) The refusal of certain border towns where they got their support is very telling in the past these towns provided escape access and safe haven now the parasite is attacking the heart of it’s host the end result being the host and the parasite both will die soon there are no more border towns for safe haven and access?
3) WHERE IS THE NAF ? we need the helios at the borders not dusting the tarmac 1000km away.
4) Extreme reports of CANNIBALISM ( MAY BE EXAGGERATED WE DO NOT KNOW) however reports from captured boko haram people have begun to be consistent even before this offensive began, shortages of food, death , and being chased , and running out of safe havens hence coverage in very inhospitable areas away from regular towns. i.e forests and mountainous areas.